Did you ever mispronounce the name "Sean"?  Martha confesses that in grade school, she assumed it was pronounced "Seen."  Grant says that the word "remuneration" still gives him trouble.

A Ft. Worth, Texas, caller confesses that for years she mispronounced "etc." as "ek cetera." It was only when she took Latin that she realized it's "et cetera," the Latin words that mean "and the rest."

An Indianapolis man admits he was recently surprised to learn he's been mispronouncing the name of the sweet Italian cheese "mascarpone" as "marscapone." Martha shares a trick for remembering how to spell and pronounce "mascarpone." He also has trouble with "chipotle," saying it as "chipolte." Grant explains the linguistic reason these words are so tricky. Can you say "metathesis"?

A Tacoma listener learned belatedly that the correct phrase is "all intensive purposes, not "all intents and purposes." She shares the story of the way she found out -- by making the mistake in front of her creative writing class.

NPR Puzzlemaster Will Shortz shares his own linguistic confession. He always has to stop and think about the word "enervate," which would seem to mean "energize," but actually means "to weaken."

Will gives Grant and Martha a quiz that involves removing the outer two letters of a word to form another word that fits Will's clues. For example, if Clue #1 is "a kind of conclusion," and Clue #2 is "a West Coast state," then the answers are "foregone" and "Oregon."

Martha confesses that as a child, she misunderstood the old hymn "Bringing in the Sheaves" as "Bringing in the Cheese." Grant says he heard the same hymn and misunderstood "sheaves" as "sheep." He also says that despite his best efforts, he often ends up pronouncing "remuneration" as "renumeration."

John Chaneski, the show's own Quiz Guy, calls from New York City with a funny story about a friend who thought until he was in his early 20's that the word "definitely" actually meant "maybe." The hosts venture theories as to why the poor fellow might confuse the two.

Did you ever mispronounce the name "Sean"?  Martha confesses that in grade school, she assumed it was pronounced "Seen."  Grant says that the word "remuneration" still gives him trouble.

A Ft. Worth, Texas, caller confesses that for years she mispronounced "etc." as "ek cetera." It was only when she took Latin that she realized it's "et cetera," the Latin words that mean "and the rest."

An Indianapolis man admits he was recently surprised to learn he's been mispronouncing the name of the sweet Italian cheese "mascarpone" as "marscapone." Martha shares a trick for remembering how to spell and pronounce "mascarpone." He also has trouble with "chipotle," saying it as "chipolte." Grant explains the linguistic reason these words are so tricky. Can you say "metathesis"?

A Tacoma listener learned belatedly that the correct phrase is "all intensive purposes, not "all intents and purposes." She shares the story of the way she found out -- by making the mistake in front of her creative writing class.

NPR Puzzlemaster Will Shortz shares his own linguistic confession. He always has to stop and think about the word "enervate," which would seem to mean "energize," but actually means "to weaken."

Will gives Grant and Martha a quiz that involves removing the outer two letters of a word to form another word that fits Will's clues. For example, if Clue #1 is "a kind of conclusion," and Clue #2 is "a West Coast state," then the answers are "foregone" and "Oregon."

Martha confesses that as a child, she misunderstood the old hymn "Bringing in the Sheaves" as "Bringing in the Cheese." Grant says he heard the same hymn and misunderstood "sheaves" as "sheep." He also says that despite his best efforts, he often ends up pronouncing "remuneration" as "renumeration."

John Chaneski, the show's own Quiz Guy, calls from New York City with a funny story about a friend who thought until he was in his early 20's that the word "definitely" actually meant "maybe." The hosts venture theories as to why the poor fellow might confuse the two.